WOW! Book Blog Tour for Eric Trant's "Steps" & Guest Post: The Grinder: A Simple MS Word Automation That Will Clean Up Your Manuscript
The first draft of anything is shit. Ernest Hemingway I'll let my host decide if she wants to edit that quote, but for me, I remember it and cite it as it was stated by a master of stating what should be obvious, but is not. I read through my first drafts with a shaking of the head. It is painful. How could I write ~that~. Good God, man, where did that come from? I struggle with what to cut and what to keep. I usually keep more than I should, and rely on the editor or a critical reader (not a critique partner, but a reader) to help me identify the excess fat. I love it all, or I would not have written it. They tell me what I should bury in revision, what should be returned to the whitespace from whence it came. However, even with an editor's eye and a critical reader's opinion, things such as weasels and passives can sneak up on us. A page littered with passives may say to the editor: Cut this page. It may say to the critical reader: This is boring. Neither fully...